Things to Consider | The Boneyard

Things to Consider

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Tough to be positive this morning for sure. As bad as Texas was, to have the same thing happen against Yale is unfathomable. We sit here today 3-3, with an extremely tough game against Duke this month, and road games against Florida and Stanford next month once American conference play begins.

It is hard to judge this team though because of the injuries. Is it an excuse to lose to a team like Yale? No. But when you have a rotation of 10 players, and 1 barely plays (Lubin) 1 who has essentially played in 2 games this year (Purvis-I don't count WV and Yale because although he played he was clearly hobbled and ineffective) and 1 who hasn't played (Calhoun) you are now down to a rotation of 7 players. Of those 7 players we have someone who didn't play much if at all last year in Facey, a sophomore who is experiencing his first year of D-1 ball in Cassell, and two players who should be role players in Nolan and Samuel. I love how hard Samuel plays, but he is a glue guy. Someone compared him to Donnel Berverly. That is who he is. If he is playing 25-30 minutes, your team will struggle.

That leaves you a freshman in Hamilton, Amida and Boat. Hamilton has played well, but he is a freshman and will make freshman mistakes. We have seen how freshman grow throughout the season. He will.

The fact that Amida couldn't work on his whole game this summer because of the surgery is readily apparent. He isn't going to make the jump this year that some people though he would. I think that jump happens next year. His lack of rebounding is killing us.

Boat is a warrior, and he has given us his all for 4 years here. But he is not a Kemba or a Shabazz who can carry the whole team for stretches of games. He is not a great 3 point shooter, and has trouble finishing around the rim. He is being asked to do too much now because of the injuries and struggles of other people.

My overall point is through 6 games, which includes games against good competition in 4 of those games, we haven't seen our whole team. Last year's team could handle an injury to certain players because of depth. This year's can't. Not having Purvis is a HUGE DEAL. Combine that with the youth and inexperience of the team, and you see why we are struggling so bad.

I would sit Purvis until he is completely healthy. If that means he misses the Duke game, then so be it. Our goal should be to get healthy for the beginning of conference play. Including in that are the games against Florida and Stanford. Get the team healthy and playing together, and we will see a much different team.

This team is going to continue to struggle for a bit. I don't see this is a quick fix. But I also don't know exactly who we are yet. I don't see us being a great 3 point shooting team, but if Purvis shoots his average from his freshman year and Calhoun can as well when he gets back, it changes a lot.

We very well may need to win our conference tournament in Hartford to get in. But we have 24 games left this year, and if we can avoid bad losses going forward, and win a game or two against Duke/Florida/Stanford then things can change.
 
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